Welcome back to The Hip Replacement Podcast. And in this episode, I have a story and a lesson. I'll get to the lesson later, but let's do the story first.
All right. I'm in central Florida and it's getting hot here now. It's early May and it's starting to get hot. And my daughters, they don't really like the heat that much. They like more of the cold for some reason. Maybe it's novel to them, I don't know, but they like the cold.
So, several months ago, they started taking ice skating lessons and once a week they go, they absolutely love it. They're not great, but they enjoy going and they get a little exercise. They get out of the heat. They get into the cold and they love it. So, they're going to keep doing it.
The lessons, the session of lessons or the pack of lessons is coming to a close now. And my wife suggested out loud one day that, hey, Chris, why don't you take them ice skating one time?
And both of my daughters were there and absolutely they freaked out and they thought that was a great idea. So I agreed that's the kind of dad I am because I would do anything for them as long as they have fun and enjoy it and I didn't mind going anyway.
So we went skating this past week. I picked them up from school and we went on a Wednesday. We could have gone on the weekend, but it's less crowded during the week at like 3:00 than it would be on the weekend. And I figured less crowd, less people on the ice, they're new skaters, so it would be safer for them and also safer for me.
But I got to tell you, the thought of going ice skating is a little bit concerning for me because the last time I've checked and every time I've checked, the ice is slippery. And as a hip replacement patient, maybe you have the same concern that a fall would be very bad whether it's on ice or not.
But my skating experience on that day was fine. It was my first time back on the ice in about a year. And as I stepped on the ice, I was a little bit uneasy. I was not very fluid at first. And the ice, no matter how smooth the ice is, it's still a little bumpy.
So, you know, I'm just gliding along the ice and it's like a little vibration up through my skates and into my legs and into my body. A little bumpy, I guess, but it was okay.
I skated for maybe 40 minutes. My confidence grew. I was able to turn not too much of a problem but I did have some difficulty and a little bit concerned about stopping because that is where it's easy to lose your balance. It's easy to catch a wrong edge and something go wrong. That's where a fall would more likely happen is during the stopping process.
So, I just sort of took it easy, did the best I could to help my daughters, stayed away from other people, and it was just good to get on the ice. It certainly was great to get out of the heat and into the cold ice rink, but it was just in the back of my mind. I wanted to go and be with my daughters, but to me, it's just something that's pretty dangerous for a hip replacement patient.
Because not only is a fall an issue, but I just don't do it often enough to have all the confidence that I would want when I'm out on the ice. Very slippery, of course, but something to point out is that I am not learning to skate. All right?
Even though it was my first time on the ice in a year, I am not a new skater. I had been on the ice with them once two years ago, once last year, and now once this year, so I guess three times in three years.
And I have a long skating history. And if it were not for this, I would not have gotten on the ice with them. No, I would have said no. No thanks. I don't want to take the risk. But because I have a long skating history, I felt relatively comfortable that few things could go wrong.
About my skating history, I grew up skating and playing hockey in the Chicago area. So up north in the US where it was cold at least six months a year. And I grew up playing hockey from a young age in leagues.
And I remember getting dropped off, me and my friends would get dropped off on like a Saturday in the winter at a park. All the parks seem to have outdoor skating rinks in the winter and we would play hockey all day long and get picked up when it got dark.
And we would even do that after school. Sometimes we would go for several hours and go play hockey, ice hockey in the park in the winter. We'd even play on frozen ponds. Probably not the smartest, but as long as it was cold enough for the ice to be thick enough for us to play on and not break the ice, we would go.
So, I played quite a bit of hockey and skated a lot. I played on the high school team. And after high school, I played pickup games in college. I played in men's leagues in my 20s and my early 30s all the way up until my hips started giving me so many problems that I really wasn't comfortable playing anymore.
I moved from up north down to the Houston, Texas area. And I remember one year over Christmas break for about four weeks, the city put up an outdoor rink in downtown Houston. And I went and I actually got a job being a, I guess they were called rink guards.
And my job there was maybe 10 of us. Our job was to go out on the ice and skate and help people if they would fall, help them get off the ice, pick them up, maybe a little first aid.
So, I was comfortable skating and we would do this. I did it for about a month when the outdoor rink was there around the Christmas holiday.
And I remember after the rink would close at night, it would close about nine o'clock every night. And all of the people who, like me, were rink guards, there were some women too, but it was mostly guys. The guys would stick around and play hockey in this outdoor rink in downtown Houston.
Even though it could have been 40, 50, 60 degrees outside, the rink was there and we would be playing hockey surrounded by these high-rise buildings. And usually the rink would close so early about nine o'clock that there were still people there who were just finishing ice skating for the night, just the public or people downtown going to restaurants or bars and they would come and watch us play because there wasn't much else going on.
And I remember one time the rink was open only until about 3:00 on Christmas Eve. So, and it upset a lot of people because a lot of people came downtown to go ice skating and the rink closed so early. And there we were at 3:05 playing hockey.
So, people were upset that they could not go ice skating there because the rink was closed. But then they stuck around for hours and watched us play hockey and there must have been three, four, 500 people around the rink watching us play and actually cheering at times.
And that was pretty surreal because it was one of the largest crowds I've ever played hockey in front of. And it wasn't like there was bleachers or stands far away. They were like hanging over the boards. So, it was a pretty intimate experience to be playing hockey outside surrounded by skyscrapers and people just cheering like right almost on top of the ice.
So, that was good. Had a lot of great experience playing hockey doing that. And I met a lot of people doing that, working at that outdoor rink. And those same people who ran that rink managed an indoor rink in Houston in the middle of a big shopping mall called the Galleria.
And if you've ever been to Houston or if you're familiar with it, you know what I'm talking about. There's a big mall called the Galleria and they have these all over the country. And if you've ever been into a mall that has an ice rink, you know what I'm talking about.
After the rink would close, it was only for ice skating. Okay. But when the rink would close, the people who worked there and since I met them, we would play hockey at night about 9:00 and the mall would be emptying. All the shoppers would be leaving, but someone would stick around and watch us play hockey 9, 10, 11, 12 o'clock at night.
And since this rink was only built for ice skating and not hockey, there were boards that went around that were the borders of the ice, but there was no glass around the rink.
So, we would be playing hockey and the rink is in an area of the mall that is a big atrium and it looks up three stories because the mall was three stories tall and people could look down onto the ice rink. So, we would have people watching us play hockey at night on multiple levels.
And since there was no glass around the ice rink, there may or may not have been some pucks that left the ice and broke some windows on the nearby stores, even on higher floors.
I cannot confirm or deny if that happened, but maybe it did. But then again, maybe it didn't.
But anyway, that's my hockey and ice skating experience, just growing up downtown Houston outside and then inside at the Galleria.
But that was a long time ago. So, me going back onto the ice more recently, it's kind of unnerving a little bit. And around the time of my first surgery, it must have been 14 years ago. It's about 14 years ago that I got rid of my skates and all my hockey equipment because I'm looking ahead at my hip surgeries 14 years ago and I'm thinking that I'll never get on the ice again. I'll never be able to skate again. Why do I have to hold on to this hockey equipment?
So about 14 years ago, we were moving into a different house right before my surgeries, six monthsish before my first surgery. And I got rid of all my equipment. It was a lot. All my equipment, my helmet, my skates, my gloves, my sticks, everything. It was about $2,000 of equipment just gone.
I think I threw it all out. Just took it out to the garbage truck when the garbage truck came by and threw it all in there.
So, for about 12 years, I didn't have skates. I had nothing. I had no relation to, no connection to ice or hockey at all.
And then about three years ago, my daughters went to a summer camp in Florida and one of the field trips that they were going to go on for one of the days of the summer camp was to go ice skating.
And I'm sort of a maybe a mildly protective father. So I wanted to go ice skating with them. But again, I had no skates. I had nothing. So I went and bought skates.
They cost, I buy good skates because I wanted to feel comfortable on the ice as best I could. So, I paid about $800 to replace skates that I threw out years earlier.
So, getting those skates three years ago, I've used them three times in the past three years, and hopefully I'll get to use them again. I'm sure my daughters will want to keep going skating. So, I will keep them close and not get rid of them like I did the last set.
And here's the important part that I want you to know. All right?
Because this applies, this could apply to you if you're facing a surgery. If you're facing a hip replacement surgery or you've already had your surgery, keep this in mind.
Do not throw away or get rid of something you think you may never need again because of your hip replacement. Because you may want to return to that activity even if it's at a less serious or less competitive or a more gentle level once your hip allows you to do that.
So if you're facing a surgery, don't freak out. If you're past the surgery, don't go through your stuff and feel like I'm going to throw this out because I'm never going to do X activity again. Take a pause. Hit the pause button because you never know years down the road. And especially if that thing you're considering getting rid of is expensive or customized somehow for you.
Because when I got rid of my skates, skates are number one, expensive, and number two, as you wear them over time, they form fit to your foot and your ankle. And breaking in new skates is kind of, it can be kind of painful because they're pretty hard and it just takes maybe 10 sessions to have them form fit around your ankle and your foot before they start to get comfortable.
And again, I've only used my new skates three times in the last three years. And honestly, they're quite uncomfortable. They feel hard. Even though I know if I wear them maybe about 10 times, they will get soft, they will get supple, they will get comfortable, and I won't even notice I have them on.
So, if you're thinking about something you may want to get rid of because you're never going to do X activity again because of your hip replacement surgery. For me, that activity was skating, ice skating, think again. Hit the pause button because you may go back to that activity once your hip and your body allows you to do that and you may have some type of external influence that makes you want to go back.
Maybe you'll have kids. Maybe you'll have grandkids. Maybe you'll start a relationship with somebody who wants to go do X activity. Maybe you'll have a midlife crisis and you'll want to go do something again that you used to do and love.
So hold on to your stuff because you never know what life is going to throw at you that might bring you back to something that you love to do before.
Think about that and I hope you return to whatever activity you want to get back to or any activity that you enjoyed prior to your hip replacement surgery. I hope this was helpful.
Thanks so much for tuning in to The Hip Replacement Podcast and until next time, I wish you the best recovery possible. Take care.
